As we all know, online shopping exploded in 2020.

With Christmas just a few weeks away, the majority of people need to complete the purchase of gifts for friends and family.  

Some of us love the thrill of offline shopping during the festive season. Retailers in some cities are looking forward to welcoming customers in stores with appropriate safety measures, such as appointment-based shopping or extending their opening hours, to provide a relaxed experience in these difficult times.

Other people would rather avoid in-store shopping and stick to a virtual store, and most of them have already started with Christmas gifts, taking advantage also of Black Friday deals. Around one-in-five shoppers have admitted to having already purchased all their festive gifts.

Considering some surveys made in the UK, a lot of buyers started earlier than in previous years because they are concerned about shipping and delivery times. Researches show that 48 % of those polled will be using apps to do their Christmas shopping, 71 % spent up to an hour a day window shopping for gifts on their mobile phones. 68 % of the population is concerned about shopping in-store, so it is not a surprise that 59 % of buyers admitted that they would do more Christmas shopping online.

According to PowerReviews Christmas Shopping Consumer Survey 2020:

"Significantly more Christmas shopping will take place online this year than last. This is not a surprise given market conditions. But the extent of these results is still worth pointing out. Around six out of ten consumers say they will do more shopping online and less shopping in-store. Among those who expect to spend more this year than last, an even bigger proportion (80%) say they will do more online shopping this year."

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Thanks to this kind of surveys, many retailers prepared their online stores properly (or they are on the way to do so). Many brands, for example, will offer exclusive online deals that are not available in-store, and there is an infinite amount of online discount codes available on the web (and unavailable offline).

Therefore, online shops are not able to use the attractive power of shop windows; they will have to attract the consumer in other ways. It will be essential to have a good eCommerce platform, but also to communicate with different market places. Purchases are influenced, besides the price and the brands' trustworthiness, from ratings and reviews from other buyers. This is why product information plays a crucial role. It is significant for an online business to make everything clear to consumers, just as if they were shopping in-store; for example, through good image quality, accurate product features, simplicity, and various choice of languages to reach as many targets as possible.